1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a user information management program and a user information management device capable of managing information concerning a user who utilizes an information provision service that transmits information to a communication apparatus according to a signal transmitted from a transmitter having a communication function. Particularly, the present invention relates to a user information management program and a user information management device that can reduce burdens of an operator who responds to a call from a user, and that can manage user information so as to be able to respond to the user promptly and properly.
2) Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an information provision service is widely provided using an interactive voice response (hereinafter, “IVR”) device that provides product information or the like by reproducing voice recorded in advance corresponding to a push button signal (PB signal) that is transmitted from a telephone.
A user of this service can obtain various kinds of information by transmitting a push button signal. When the provided information is insufficient, the user can directly communicate with an operator by connecting a line to the operator.
After the user disconnects the line after communicating with the operator, the user sometimes wants to obtain more relevant information by telephoning again. However, the user cannot always communicate with the same operator with whom the user talked before, and the user must explain the situation again to another operator, which is inconvenient.
To cope with this situation, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-332898 discloses a customer correspondence system that stores correspondence information that the operator communicates with the customer. When the customer calls again and wants to communicate with the operator, this customer correspondence system reads the past response information, and transfers the customer call to a telephone terminal of the same operator who talked with the customer before. This system displays the response information in a display device of the operator.
However, according to the conventional technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-332898, only the response information up to the time of receiving the telephone last time is notified to the operator. It is not clear what the customer wants this time on the telephone, and the operator finds it difficult to respond to the customer promptly and properly.
Specifically, even when the operator can confirm the information responded to the customer last time, the customer may call the operator for other reason than that when the customer called last time. In this case, the operator must ask the customer or receive an explanation about the state from the customer. Therefore, not only burdens are imposed on the operator but also convenience of the service for the customer is lost.